ENGLISH

WHO WE ARE

Horiguchi Coffee is an explorer ranging the frontiers of coffee; an artisan working on coffees to carve out their beauty; and a guide accompanying people who seek for tasty coffees. We are dedicated to exemplary coffees for those who grow, process, trade and consume such coffees, and who finally find us as their long-term partner. Like classics in any other field, Horiguchi Coffee is determined to be someone, and to deliver something, judged over a period of time to be innovative, of the highest quality and outstanding in coffee.

MISSION AND VALUES

Mission: Horiguchi Coffee constantly pursues coffees of the highest quality and delivers superior value and delight to the customers, thereby increasing value of coffee perceived by consumers and enriching lives of people.

Values: Committed to customers; Devoted to craft; Uncompromising in quality; Open to innovations; Respecting diversity; Scientifically sound; and Caring for sustainability.

BUSINESS AREAS

Green Coffee Distributor: Selling green coffees exclusively to the members of the Leading Coffee Family (LCF), a group of independent micro roasters led by Horiguchi Coffee.

Roaster (Wholesaler & Retailer): Roasting coffees and distributing them in the retail and wholesale markets through its own physical and online stores.

Cafes: Brewing and serving coffee at its own cafes with some foods including cakes made in-house.

BRIEF HISTORY

Founded in May, 1990 by Toshihide Horiguchi as a roastery/cafe. Very quality-oriented from the beginning. One of the pioneers of specialty coffee roasters in Japan. Begins frequent visits to origins (producing countries) in 2000. Starts to identify “partner growers” in 2002. Forms an alliance of independent micro roasters (LCF) in 2004 with 20 members (now 120).

GREEN COFFEES: Our foundation to sustain the quality and diversity

An exquisite cup does not happen without exquisite green coffee. With this belief, Horiguchi Coffee not only uses green coffee we strictly select on our own, but also has been engaged in various activities reinforcing availability of green coffees that meet our rigorous quality standard. Such activities include: continuously sourcing green coffee from certain competent growers and exporters as our supplying partners and cooperating with them for further quality improvement; actively introducing beans which are very unique and exotic, result from innovative endeavors, and can enhance the charm, and widen the potential, of coffee; and paying uncompromized attention to transportation and storage of green coffee to keep them in their best shape and to unleash their potential as long and well as possible. We do our best for the best green coffee. That's our root.

ROAST: Our craft to realize green coffees' potential

The main purpose of roasting is to realize potential flavors of green coffee to the maximum extent. Coffee roasting seems a simple act but is actually a profound task. Various factors affect roasting. Green coffee changes both physically and chemically over time even if they are properly stored. Even local weather conditions on the roasting day influence events in the chamber. This means there is no identical batch. Each batch requires serious focus. Roasters need to fully utilize information from their experiences and their own senses. Batch by batch, you have to carefully examine whether their roast has yielded an intended result. We constantly work hard to make today's roast better than yesterday's so that we can deliver to our customers passion and dedication of those who have been involved in the production and logistics of the coffee.

BLENDING: Our imagination to achieve the perfection

At Horiguchi Coffee, blending is a creative activity to develop coffee with novel and complex flavors which are difficult to attain with a single origin coffee. Blending starts with identifying characters and uniqueness of various single origin coffees available, which are also offered to our customers as they are. It is no exaggeration to say that Horiguchi Coffee sources extraordinary single origins in order to develop exquisite blends. Making blends having the same flavors every time is a challenge, because some ingredients become unavailable eventually and, even if they are available, they change their quality over time. Mere replacement of one with another usually does not work, as you cannot get exactly the identical ingredient, and accordingly simple substitution would result in a different flavor. We have to keep fine-adjusting the composition to achieve the flavor profiles that we want.

CAFES: Our arena to showcase our coffees

At Horiguchi Coffee, cafes are places where we demonstrates how good our roasted coffee can be as beverage. We provide customers with the best coffee experiences in which high quality, tasty coffee plays the pivotal role. Our cafes serve coffee beverages including drip coffees (in a Japanese traditional form), espressos and their arranged drinks, as well as foods which harmonize with our coffee.